Gruesome injury draws reactions from Duke

Monday

Apr 1, 2013 at 12:01 AMApr 1, 2013 at 12:52 AM

Adam Smith / Times-News

INDIANAPOLIS — Duke’s Tyler Thornton had connected on what would be his only 3-pointer of Sunday’s game, a first-half shot from the right wing that received a flying challenge from Louisville’s Kevin Ware.

And as he began to retreat on defense, Thornton turned to locate Ware, his assignment.

What he found was the gruesome injury that jarred the Midwest Region final.

“That’s when I saw him lift his leg in the air and I saw how his leg was bent and broken,” Thornton said later in the Duke locker room, after Louisville’s 85-63 victory.

Ware’s right leg shattered, buckling under as he landed near the sideline in front of the Louisville bench. It was ghastly, an open fracture of the right tibia, the snapped bone popping out of Ware’s leg, along with what appeared to be tissue and other fragments.

Thornton saw Ware down on his back on the Lucas Oil Stadium court and initially assumed the Louisville guard perhaps had sprained his ankle.

Then he discovered the horrific sight – Thornton had a unique vantage point as the only Blue Devils player in the vicinity – and the Duke guard began clutching his stomach.

“I get squeamish when I see stuff like that,” he said. “When I see stuff on TV like that, I try to turn the channel, because I don’t really like that stuff.

“So I kind of had to take a mental break for myself after I saw that. I needed to take a minute or two to myself, just because how my heart was racing, how what I saw, how his leg was.”

An eight-minute stoppage ensued. Coach Rick Pitino stayed by Ware’s side as Louisville reserves and assistant coaches scattered from the area in shock, some as if they’d heard gunshots.

Ware eventually was loaded on a stretcher and rolled away from the court area. He underwent two hours of surgery at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis, the bone re-set, the wound from the injury closed and a rod inserted in his right tibia.

Meanwhile, assistant coach Steve Wojciechowski consoled Thornton near the Duke bench as Ware was being tended to in front of the Louisville bench.

Thornton compared Ware’s mangled leg to a terrible football injury, such as those suffered by running backs Willis McGahee and Marcus Lattimore.

Louisville players experienced a range of shaken reactions at the moment they recognized the severity of Ware’s leg, which trainers scrambled to cover with towels.

Wayne Blackshear, inbounding the ball after Thornton’s 3, crumpled to the court face down. Russ Smith kept his jersey pulled over his mouth. Chane Behanan walked to the sideline, sat down, dropped his head in his hands and cried hard on the Louisville bench.

When play finally resumed, Pitino was kneeling and wiping tears from his eyes at the exact spot where Ware had been.

“They came back out and they were playing for him,” Thornton said. “That give them an extra boost, extra energy, extra fight.”